Cat Caught Smuggling Contraband into Brazilian Prison

Handout photo released on January 5, 2013 by the Penitentiary System of Alagoas of a penitentiary agent holding a cat with a package of tools and a mobile phone tied to its body at Luiz de Oliveira Souza prison, in Arapiraca, Alagoas, Maceio, north of Brazil.

The feline probably used up one of its nine lives after getting nabbed on New Year’s Eve by a guard at the medium security Prison Judge Luiz de Oliveira Souza in Arapiraca, a city some 800 miles north of Rio de Janiero.

What was on the cat’s body? Two saws, two concrete drill bits, a headset, a memory card, a cell phone, three batteries and a mobile phone charger, according to a police statement. All of Judge Luiz de Oliveira Souza’s 263 inmates are being considered suspects.

Officials at the prison have confirmed that the white cat had been spotted lurking around the prison gate, which has led to the theory that he/she could have been taken care of by the inmates. “We were very surprised by this new tactic of the prisoners,” Marcelo Avelino, head of the prison guards’ union, told the O Globo newspaper.

The cat has been transferred to a local animal center while prison officials attempt to figure out who is behind the incident. As a prison spokesperson told the local newspaper Estado de S. Paulo, “It’s tough to find out who’s responsible for the action as the cat doesn’t speak.”